Re: Gamplay "mechanics" you don't like?

On Thu, 02 Jan 2025 13:09:57 -0600, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:

On Thu, 02 Jan 2025 09:59:24 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

On Thu, 02 Jan 2025 16:40:17 +0200, Anssi Saari
<anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> wrote:

Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com> writes:

My biggest pet peeve:
ESCORT QUESTS.

<snip>

I remember one game which did it right but can't remember the name. Kind
of a stab at a PC version of the Amiga classic "Warhead" but with
horrendous live action video and the game seemed unfinished. Oh,
wikipedia tells me it was "XF5700 Mantis Experimental Fighter". The
escort missions went like this: mission starts, you engage autopilot,
mission ends. Best escort missions ever :)

Heh. Finally somebody else familiar with XF5700 Mantis. Truly a
horrific game. Even after thirty years, it remains my top pick for
worst voice acting in a game.
(The gameplay wasn't much better either. But the intro was pretty
neat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIdUhRNZXRQ )

That is a deep, deep cut. I'm surprised. I had no idea what either of you
are talking about.

Yeah, "XF5700 Mantis" never really gained any traction and it's one of
Microprose's least well-known games. Which really speaks volumes for
how bad it was. Released in an era when space-combat sims were all the
rage (same year as "Wing Commander: Privateer") and semi-sequel to a
well-known Amiga game ("Warhead"), and incorporating elements from
"Elite" (mainly, it's semi-Newtonian space-flight mechanics) as well
as embracing Origin's 'talking-head' sim game mission structures
("Wing Commander", "Strike Commander", "Pacific Strike", etc.),
"XF5700 Mantis" _should_ have been a home-run. It utilized some
impressive (for the time) 3D graphics, and even released on CD-ROM
with digitized video, and with full voice-acting in missions!

And yet, it was an embarassing flop. Its reviews were middling to
poor, and even in 1993 almost nobody talked about it on Usenet.
Nowadays, even as people wax nostalgic about otherwise forgotten games
like "Simon the Sorcerer" or "'Vette" or whatever lost classic you
look fondly back upon, nobody even remembers that "XF5700 Mantis" even
existed.

But it's no surprise, really. The gameplay was pretty poor; the
missions were dull: repetitive in structure and unexciting to play.
The Newtonian space-flight mechanics weren't enjoyable at all; so much
so that the best way to finish a mission was just to enable the
autopilot and let it do all the manuevering for you. The music was
terrible (Microprose always had some of the worst composers of the
big-name PC game publishers), and the voice-acting was terrible. Even
the visuals worked against it; while technically impressive, they just
didn't LOOK as good as what we saw in other contemporary games.

"XF5700 Mantis" was a bad game. The only reason I remember it (aside
from the fact that I have a kink for ancient DOS games) is for its
awful voice-acting. It was almost Ed Wood-level bad, except it dragged
on so slowly that any enjoyment you might get from its terrible
gameplay would quickly be sapped away through the hours of tedious
slog. I'm not sure I'd call it one of the worst PC games ever made
--like I said, the production values and concepts behind the game were
solid-- but it definitely ranks pretty high on the list.